Tips from parents at Google

Watch some of our parents at Google talking about how they manage their children’s
safety online, and read safety tips from Google below. Or read
advice on specific safety issues, such as inappropriate content and cyber bullying,
from child safety experts we work with.

Here are some general suggestions on how to help keep your family safe online.

Keep computers in a central place. This will make it easier to
keep an eye on your children’s activities.

Know where your children go online. If you have young children,
you might use the Internet with them. For older children, you could talk about what
kinds of site they like to visit and what isn’t appropriate for your family. You
can also check where your kids have been by looking at the history in your browser
menu. Another option is to use filtering tools like Google SafeSearch.

Teach Internet safety. It’s impossible to monitor your child’s
online activity all the time. As they get older, they need to know how to use the
Internet safely and responsibly when they’re on their own.

Use privacy settings and sharing controls. Many sites that
feature user-generated content, including YouTube, Blogger and social networking
sites, have sharing controls that put users in charge of who sees personal blogs,
photos, videos and profiles. Using sharing controls is particularly important
when you or your children share personal information such as names, addresses or
phone numbers on public sites. Teach your children to respect the privacy of
friends and family by not identifying people by name in public profiles and
pictures.

Protect passwords. Remind your children not to give out their
passwords. Make sure that they make a habit of unclicking “remember me” settings
on public computers, such as those at school or in the library.

Beware of strangers. Teach your children not to arrange
in-person meetings with people they “meet” online and not to share personal
information with online strangers, because people may not be who they claim to
be.

Help to prevent viruses. Use anti-virus software and update it
regularly. Make sure that your children avoid downloading from file-sharing
websites and don’t accept files or open email attachments from unknown people.

Teach your children to communicate responsibly. Take the following
as a good rule of thumb: if you wouldn’t say it to someone’s face, don’t text it,
email it, instant message it or post it as a comment on someone’s page.

View all content critically. Just because you see it online,
there’s no guarantee that it’s true. Children should learn how to distinguish
reliable sources from unreliable ones and how to verify information that they find
online. Make sure that kids understand that cutting and pasting content directly
from a website may be plagiarism.